Just Add Water
by Sandwich Shop Mayo
Summary: He meets her in the middle.


_Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing with them. _  
_Spoilers: 18 Miles Out__  
_

...

Rick almost panicked the minute he saw Andrea rush off past him, unaware of his presence, crying and stopping to let her hands rest on her knees. He rushed to her quickly, because that's what they did these days. Tears meant distress. Distress meant hurt. Hurt meant bit. _Andrea was bit._

When he reached her and she saw him she put a hand up and stepped away. That cemented it for him. Andrea had been bit. It broke his heart in a way he didn't know it could be broken.

"Where? What happened?" it was all he could say. Dumbfounded, shocked, and heartbroken. _Not Andrea, please, God, not Andrea._

But as she continued to step away he could tell her tears were different, because he knew that if she _were_ bit she wouldn't be crying like this. She wouldn't be crying, period. She would be calm and collected. She would just put herself out. Andrea was strong like that.

This was something else and suddenly he felt anger aimed at whomever. Somebody hurt her and it wasn't a walker. Oh, he was about to kick someone's ass for making Andrea cry like this.

She was a blubbering mess, muttering incoherences about soup and cotton. The second he heard those words, he understood and it hurt even more because this was personal and he felt responsible.

_Lori_.

"What?" he asked calmly despite her distress. "What did she say?"

She whimpered and new tears sprung out. She wiped them away immediately like she mentally tried to wipe away the shame that took hold. She hated letting people see her cry. "They—"

"Who?" he said immediately, reaching for her elbow. "Carol, too?"

She didn't say yes or no, just looked away from him and the frustration was there all over her face. "I don't know how to _do_ those things."

"What things?" he only received a sniff for an answer but he knew, anyway. He knew his wife well enough. "You mean cooking and cleaning?"

She didn't confirm it or deny it either, and he wondered if she even heard it. She mostly seemed to be talking to herself. "I don't know _how_."

He chuckled despite himself, reaching for her and pulling her close. She tensed in his arms, but then relaxed and buried her nose under his pit. "Andrea, nobody expects you to do those things."

"They—"

"Lori and Carol were raised different," he told her calmly as she chocked back another sob, trying to calm herself down. "Just because..." He sighed, already rehearsing all the words he was going to have with Lori. "Andrea, are you really letting them bully you? This isn't like you."

"I just don't know how," she kept repeating like she was apologizing to him but in his eyes, there was nothing to apologize for. Andrea was perfect just the way she was even if her room was a bit of a mess and she burned everything she put on the stove.

He ran a hand through her soft curls and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "Hey, I don't either."

"But you're a man." She pulled back to look at him, her eyes red and blue. "You don't have to know. I do but I just can't and it pisses me off and they hate me. You all do."

"Now _that's_ bullshit," he told her sternly. "_I_ see your value. You're our best shooter. You keep us safe. Daryl likes you. Hell, I'm pretty sure he has a crush on you. Glenn adores you, always talks about you like you're some heroine in one of his video games. T-Dog loves you. So do Beth and Carl. Hershel thinks you're something out of this world. You've got plenty of people on your corner, Andrea. Don't let them get to you like this."

As he said the words she thought about them and sniffed one last time, feeling like she wanted to go to bed and sleep forever. "I'm just tired."

He smiled sympathetically and ran his thumb along her cheeks to wipe at the remaining tears. "I know. I'm tired, too."

"No, you're not tired like this," she said, sighing and letting the rest of it out, thoughts she'd never expressed out of fear. But Rick felt safe, felt like a soft spot to land on. "I don't know how to be, Rick. I don't know how to be like them or you. It feels so lonely, always has. When it's not one thing or the other then it's the dumb blonde jokes. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to please them. I'm just tired of this same shit."

His hand settled on her elbow again and he squeezed it reassuringly. He understood, really, even if he'd never been in her shoes. He wasn't a woman, yet he'd had to hear those comments his whole life, other cops calling him a pansy, a pretty boy, a fag because he didn't sleep with every woman he pulled over. He'd always been sensitive to people's needs, even as a boy. His empathy had always set him aside just like Andrea's aggressiveness had done to her. He kinda got it, what it felt like, to be stuck in the middle with nowhere to belong.

But he also knew that in a way, if they could survive in the middle, it made them stronger people. He knew his wife. He knew her too well. Andrea was everything that Lori feared, everything that she resented in herself. Lori only hated Andrea because Andrea reminded her of her own failure.

"You don't have to be like anyone, Andrea," he told her. "Just be you. I wouldn't like it if you were someone else."

Despite the mess of tears that had left tracks on her cheeks, she smiled. "Why did you marry her?" The minute the words left her mouth she grimaced at her carelessness, almost flinching at her stupidity. "I'm sorry, I'm—"

But he smiled instead, pulling her back into his arms in a show of forgiveness. "Because I was raised like that. Mom told me clear, 'you got that girl pregnant, you best marry her.' It was the right thing to do."

"That's bullshit," she said.

"Maybe," he said, chuckling at her honesty. "Maybe not. Andrea, Lori is not strong like you. She doesn't know how to be, either. But instead of crying she just takes it out on people. Today it was you. Tomorrow it'll be someone else. Probably me. You just have to learn to ignore it, okay?"

She nodded, taking one step back and away from him, missing his warmth instantly but she felt she had no right to be a part of it.

"And I know this isn't the first time you've clashed with Lori, so why the tears this time?"

"I don't know," Andrea said, rubbing her eyes. "It's just that the two of them... I thought Carol liked me."

"She does like you," Rick said. "She just lets Lori boss her around, that's all."

"Yeah, I guess so," Andrea said. Now that she thought about it, the whole deal seemed stupid and her reaction over the top. But she'd felt so alone. She didn't feel alone anymore.

Rick smiled at her as the gears turned in her head. "You okay now?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Wanna help me check the perimeter?"

"Yeah. Can we?"

"Of course," he offered her. "Come on."

That night Lori threw him out and he had to sleep on the couch. He'd known that would happen, but he couldn't let Lori bully the members of his group like that. At a time like this they needed to band together, not pull apart.

He woke up with a kink on his neck and in a bad mood, but when he walked into the kitchen he couldn't help chuckling.

Andrea sat by the table, a tub of oatmeal in front of her. She was eying it like it was some complex math problem and she looked so unsure of herself.

Rick approached the table, grabbed the tub and read the instructions on the back. "Let's see. It only needs water. No way we can mess that up, right?"

Andrea scrunched her nose in doubt. "Well, salt, too. And sugar."

"We just have to measure it, that's all," Rick said, finding an old set of measuring spoons in the cabinet. She mostly just stayed back and participated very little, but he encouraged her to add the salt and sugar, and when they tasted the oatmeal minutes later it tasted just right.

She laughed at their triumph and they ate together, talking about the plans for the day. When they finished, he picked up her bowl and his and placed them in the sink.

"Let's go."

But Andrea stopped him. "What about the dishes?"

Rick shrugged his shoulders. "They wanna play housemakers, let them play." She chuckled at his attitude and he grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go shooting."

Andrea grinned as she followed, thinking how good it felt to finally have someone stand apart with her.


End file.
